Displaced person from Kherson is sentenced for sabotage in Odesa

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa announced the verdict in the case of 19-year-old Serhiy, an IDP from Kherson, who blew up the car of a military prosecutor on Seminarska Street in February.

This was reported by investigative journalist Yulia Khymerik.

According to the investigation, the explosion occurred on February 20, when another prosecutor was parked nearby. He suffered a closed head injury, and the metal nuts that filled the explosive device flew apart and damaged the wall of the house opposite.

The accused, Serhiy Svyatiy-Kholodnyak, pleaded guilty in full. During the hearing, he stated that he was ashamed of what he had done and called his act a mistake of youth.

According to the investigation, in early February, the young man wrote off in a telegram with an unidentified person who acted in the interests of the FSB. He was renting an apartment, where he made explosives and stuffed them with metal nuts. On February 20, Serhiy arrived at Seminarska Street, put the bomb under the military prosecutor's car and walked away. A few minutes later, an explosion occurred.

As the journalist noted, at the trial, Serhiy said that at first he was supposed to leave only an empty box - a "test" - but later the curator gave him an assignment with a real explosive device. He claimed that he refused, but a girl he knew contacted him and convinced him to trust the organizers. She herself was detained on February 8 for a series of arson attacks on military vehicles.

The defendant claimed that he did not know about the planned attack and was supposed to pass the backpack to another man. On the spot, the curator allegedly asked him to place the backpack under a specific car. In his correspondence, Serhiy expressed doubts and fear that the explosion could affect bystanders.

During the interrogation, the prosecutor asked whether the boy was aware of his actions at the moment he put the explosives under the car. After a pause, Serhiy answered:"I was aware". When the victim asked if he knew that there could have been other people in the yard, he also saidyes.

At the sentencing, he asked for the least possible punishment. The lawyer noted that the guy sincerely repented, admitted his guilt and realized the consequences of his actions. After the explosion, the curator bought him tickets to Kyiv and planned to pay for a hotel, but Serhiy did not have time to escape - he was detained.

The court sentenced him to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property. The civil claims of the victims amounting to about UAH 1.4 million were satisfied.

In October, SBU counterintelligence detained a man suspected of organizing a terrorist attack in Odesa on behalf of Russian special services. He was planting ready-made explosives in caches along the sea coast and passing their coordinates to the FSB. The detainee was a 60-year-old Odesa resident, a former merchant marine sailor.

Анна Бальчінос